You know link building is crucial for SEO. But how many types of link building in SEO are there? Understand your goals, are you targeting national SEO keywords? local SEO keywords? Depending on your goals could change your approach on getting backlinks slightly. And how do you choose the right ones for your business? This post explores the world of link building. It helps you decide which strategies will benefit your website most in 2025.
Understanding Links
Links act like votes of confidence for search engines. They indicate which websites are valuable and trustworthy.
However, not all links are created equal. Some hold more weight than others. Some can even harm your site’s rankings.
Understanding the different link types is the first step to a strong link profile and a good SEO plan.
How Many Types of Link Building in SEO Exist?
Link building methods can be categorized in various ways. Here are the major link types.
Editorial Links
Editorial backlinks are earned organically. They’re endorsements of your content. You get these by creating high-quality, informative content that people want to share, which is part of a content marketing strategy.
You can also request editorial links. Work with influencers or conduct industry surveys. Focus on link-worthy content that others will find valuable.
Manual Link Building
This involves direct outreach to web admins or marketers. Suggest linking from their content to your relevant, high-quality content.
Manual link building can include guest posting, expert comments, or fixing broken links on their site. Broken link building benefits both sites, resulting in more follow links.
According to Aira’s report, broken link building is the fifth most popular tactic among digital marketers.
Natural/Organic Links
Natural backlinks result from creating excellent content. This often involves well-researched data, original infographics, and promoting your content to boost traffic.
Backlinko’s research shows long-form content generates more backlinks and social shares. Addressing orphaned content (pages without internal links) is crucial for SEO.
Self-Created Links
Self-created links include blog comments, forum profiles, and directory submissions. Search engines don’t favor these and may penalize overuse.
Internal Links
Internal links connect pages within your website. They are essential for user experience and SEO strategy.
Internal links distribute link equity, strengthening site authority. Many site owners underutilize internal links.
Strategic internal linking helps search engines grasp page relationships, which is good for both users and your SEO plan.
Other Link Building Considerations
Nofollow vs. Follow Links
“Nofollow” tags tell search engines not to count links toward rankings. They’re often used in social media or comment sections, generating natural links.
“Follow” links, the standard type, pass PageRank and boost ranking potential. It is the follow links you are aiming for with link building.
The Power of a Backlink Profile
Your backlink profile includes all backlinks pointing to your site. It’s a summary of your website’s authority. Generating high-quality backlinks contributes to improved rankings and search engine optimization (SEO).
A good backlink profile attracts quality inbound traffic and raises your digital PR profile.
Strategies for Diverse Link Building
Building various backlinks strengthens your website’s authority. Here’s how to diversify your digital PR efforts.
Leverage Visual Content
Visual content like videos and infographics attracts more attention than text. Use this for higher engagement and attracting links naturally.
Publish Original Research
Conducting original research establishes your website as an authoritative source. This attracts editorial backlinks and increases domain authority. Publish press releases or do guest posting to highlight the research.
Reclaim Broken and Unlinked Mentions
This strategy improves your existing backlink profile. It can involve using digital PR for press releases and guest posting, or by securing external links.
First, fix broken backlinks on other sites. Suggest your content as a replacement. Second, look for brand mentions without links and request them, which is key to good content marketing. You want sites linking to you as much as possible.
Build Genuine Relationships on Social Media
Connecting with relevant authors and publishers on social media can generate backlinks and referral traffic. A good link building strategy takes time.
Sharing helpful links on social media can lead to follow links and referrals. Social media helps build relationships that translate to valuable backlinks.
Few pieces of online content receive more than one backlink. Active social media increases your chances of earning multiple backlinks.
Use Tools
SEO tools can assist your link building efforts. Ahrefs, Moz’s Open Site Explorer, and Semrush’s Link Building Tool are helpful resources. These tools let you research broken or outdated backlinks. Fixing these for other websites can create opportunities for them to link back to you. Knowing when your competitors backlinks have expired so you can be first in line for the anchor texts when those backlinks go to other pages is valuable for a successful link building strategy.
Conclusion
So, how many types of link building in SEO are essential? There’s no set number. A diverse approach that builds various types of quality backlinks is important for improving your site’s ranking and how it is rated on different site explorers.
This post explored key link-building categories. Use multiple strategies. Instead of focusing on an exact number of tactics, build links naturally and through a variety of efforts.
Hire a digital marketing and SEO agency to help get you backlinks to increase your search engine visibility today.
Focus on quality content and a holistic approach to improve search engine visibility and boost traffic.